According to critics, the United States college education system is failing. The main factor: college graduates still can’t perform basic job tasks such as writing well. These college students have graduated from colleges with highly-regarded degrees, including master’s, and still can’t write well enough for today’s job market. Combine this with the fact that after graduating with a degree students are left with major debt, and it’s no surprise critics are using the term “failing”. Last but not least, college education is not giving students the necessary tools to do their jobs within their chosen field of study. One would think that by graduating with a college degree one can go right into the job market and be fine, but that isn’t the case within American society today.
How many of today’s jobs require decent every day basic writing skills? How many college graduates can actually write well enough for a job?
According to Katherine Hansen (PhD), an educator and a writer, nearly two thirds of the jobs with major companies within the United States require comprehensive writing skills. According to Bentley University “nearly three-quarters of the hiring managers complain that millennials – even those without college degrees – aren’t prepared for the job market…”, and that isn’t even the worst part. According to the Council for Economic Education, only 22 of the 50 states require a high school course in economics.
How does America expect its students to know anything related to finance and economics when it’s not even a requirement for all schools within all of the 50 states to teach their students about the topic? And people wonder why the financial literacy of Americans is severely lacking. Students spend all their money and time on a decent college education thinking it will help prepare them for their future jobs when they graduate only to come out unprepared to work within their job fields.
College education is suppose to teach college graduates what they need to know in order to succeed in the job after graduation. But many jobs require writing skills, and American college graduates can’t snatch a decent job after graduation due to their poor writing skills.
Employers want employees that have the high college degrees to work for them. But again, according Bentley University, managers are complaining because the college graduates lack the basic writing skills and they lack the total preparation in preparing them for the hands-on experience within their job fields.
It isn’t for a company to teach expected college graduates on how to write well enough to succeed nor is it a company’s job to make sure that the college graduates know what to do when working within their field of study. Colleges are supposed to do that.
Many CEO’s have complained that college is a waste of a student’s money and time, for colleges are not doing their job in teaching the students what the need to know for the job market. But here is the bigger question, why is the US education system failing? And what will be done in the future about the growing issue of college graduates being completely unprepared to work within today’s job market?